Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Southport stabbings suspect Axel Rudakubana (Elizabeth Cook/PA) The 18-year-old accused of killing three girls in a knife attack at a Southport dance class is due to go on trial. Axel Rudakubana, of Banks ...

The 18-year-old pleaded guilty to all 16 offences he faced on the first day of his trial at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday. | ITV News Granada

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, were murdered by Axel Rudakubana last summer.

A former chairman of the Conservative Party has claimed that the beginning of Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana’s trial was scheduled on the same day as Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration as “a calculated and cynical move by the Labour Government to ‘bury bad news’ behind international headlines”.

Here is a timeline of what was known when about Southport killer Axel Rudakubana: Axel Rudakubana becomes known to a range of local agencies due to anxiety, social isolation and challenging behaviour. In October he takes a knife to school, and in December attacks another child with a hockey stick.

DCI Jason Pye, who led the investigation, said no training course could have prepared his officers for the horror of what they saw.

The 18-year-old’s disruptions meant he was not in court as the judge handed him one of the longest minimum terms on record.

Axel Rudakubana has been handed a 52 year sentence for the murder of three young girls at a dance class in Southport last summer. | ITV News Granada

The Southport killer said 'I’m glad they’re dead' as he was held in a custody suite after killing three girls at a dance class, the court heard

Rudakubana was referred to the anti-extremism scheme Prevent three times before the murders, amid concerns over his fixation with violence.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced a public inquiry into how three girls came to be murdered at a dance class in Southport by 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana.

Rudakubana cowardly refused to come into the dock at Liverpool Crown Court when he was being sentenced by the judge